Vans: Honda Odyssey to take the Minivan Crown from Dodge Caravan

Honda, the second largest Japanese automobile and motorcycle brand, is about to overtake Dodge, a United States-based brand of automobiles and trucks under Chrysler LLC (an American automaker), with its Dodge Caravan competitor the Honda Odyssey.

By fact, Chrysler has single-handedly created the minivan market segment with the Dodge Caravan and the Chrysler Town and Country. The Caravan was introduced in the United States in 1983. Since then, it turned out to be the top-selling minivan in the market. But Chrysler may lose its title of being the maker of America s most popular minivan as the Caravan is about to overtaken by the Odyssey.

Based from AutoData, Japanese automaker Honda was able to have 158,139 units of Odyssey sold last November 2.3 percent lower than Honda sold by the same period last year. It was still ahead though of the sales of Dodge Caravan at 154,824 units in the same time frame. Caravan sales swooped down by 21 percent compared with its sales last year.

According to spokeswoman Beverly Thacker, Chrysler has introduced a completely redesigned and improved version of the van this fall. She believes that the sales for 2007 have been affected by the changeover to the new version. But the company is already working on the reduction of fleet sales, she also further explained. And that involves the drop in Caravan sales.

Because now, more than ever buyers are turning to crossover SUVs vehicles that provide impressive design and offer the functionality of SUVs without compromising the handling, ride and fuel economy sales of all types of minivans tend to suffer. This is the reason why Ford and General Motors have turned their backs from the minivan market in the recent years and instead focused their attention on introducing large crossover SUVs.

Jesse Toprak, executive director of industry analysis for sales tracker Edmunds.com, said that the recent sales numbers may mark a more permanent end to the Caravan being the presumptive market leader in minivans.

The roll-out of the redesigned 2008 minivans was barely enough to top the sales of the Honda Odyssey. Honda, also maker of quality Acura CL fender and engines, made various improvements to its minivan for the 2008 model year.

Toprak said that the Caravan will not be able to regain market leadership until spring, in case the current trends continue. But, Chrysler may not allow the situation to drag that long. According to Tom Libby, an analyst with Power Information network, the company is likely to invest on incentives over the next couple of weeks to make sure it retakes the title before the year ends.

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Vans: Honda Odyssey to take the Minivan Crown from Dodge Caravan

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